1695: The discovery of gold in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil triggered a massive new demand for enslaved African labor to work the extensive riverine gol…

1695: The discovery of gold in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil triggered a massive new demand for enslaved African labor to work the extensive riverine goldfields. Thousands of workers were required to extract these riches, leading the Portuguese to turn increasingly toward West Central Africa and the Bight of Benin for captives. The gold rush fundamentally reshaped the internal demographic and economic landscape of the Brazilian colony. Minas Gerais remained a premier mining region through the mid-eighteenth century, sustained by a relentless influx of forced laborers.